IMRAN Khan is always telling the audience in his public addresses that the peasants in India enjoy special concessions like free electricity, subsidised fertilizers and seeds etc, therefore they are happy and prosperous.

If this is true, then may I ask Imran Khan, why is it that thousands of farmers routinely commit suicide in India? In 2012 alone, 13,754 farmers committed suicide in India because they were unable to repay their debt to private money lenders because of failed crops.

Authentic figures for 2013 and 2014 are hard to come by, but the fact that 204 farmers committed suicide in the first four months of 2014 in the Indian state of Maharashtra alone speaks volumes about the problems and misery faced by Indian farmers. One should remember that Maharashtra with 80 million people is the second largest state of India which has a population of 1.3 billion!

India also has 33 million Dalits or untouchables who are social outcasts. They have no right to even exist. India also has the worst human rights record with regards to Kashmir (100,000 Muslims in the Indian occupied valley have been killed by the Indian army).

Imran Khan please take note.

Safir A. Siddiqui

Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 27th , 2014